22@Update Breakfast, January 2008

15th of February, 2008

At the 22@ Update Breakfast on January 2008, Mr. Francesc Santacana, General Coordinator of the Barcelona Strategic Metropolitan Plan, made a presentation and talked about the actual situation of the telecommunications in the city of Barcelona, which is an essential part of the strategic plan.

The Barcelona Strategic Metropolitan Plan was created with the objective to transform the city and metropolitan area of Barcelona both socially and economically. The plan aims to face the challenges of the 21st century through public and private consensus, shared leadership and cooperation among the different agencies that participate in the project. In 1999, the third Strategic Plan was approved in order to create a knowledge-based city: the 22@Barcelona model of innovation.

The 22@ Update Breakfast discussed that the planning of the city of Barcelona represents a really important issue in order to create a modern society and competitive environment. The process of economic and technological development based on the internationalization of the business depends mainly on the existence of a good telecommunications project. Such project allows these areas to overcome isolation and to attract companies and talent from all over the world, and thus the economic and the social development of the city will be stimulated.

Mr. Santacana affirms that “globalization wouldn’t be possible without communication technologies”. It should be mentioned also that the telecommunications’ quality is the third most important factor that the companies are looking for when they are establishing offices and headquarters abroad. Thus Barcelona must improve the competitiveness of the city in this aspect. For that reason were accepted some steps that are directed to the improvement of the telecommunications’ quality.